1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a display device which ensures ease of use and reliable and legible display with an enlarged range of values.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such display devices are known from the prior art as “progress meters”. The known progress meters consist of a number of bar-shaped display elements arranged in a row, while either an individual display element assigned to the value or all display elements up to the display element assigned to the value are activated to display a particular value.
Referring now to FIGS. 1A and 1B, which show such display devices known from the conventional art, there is first shown FIG. 1A which shows a progress meter 1 with seven display elements 2, wherein each time only one of the display elements 2 is activated to show a value. Thus, with the display device of FIG. 1A, the seven display elements 2 can distinctly show precisely seven conditions.
FIG. 1B shows the second known configuration variant of such display devices 1, in which to show a particular value all display elements 2 are activated starting from one end of the display elements 2 arranged as a bar, up to a display element 2 assigned to the value being indicated. In the example shown in FIG. 1B, seven display elements 2 also can clearly display at most seven values or conditions.
Furthermore, it is known from the prior art how to encode the values being displayed and also how to perform the display in encoded manner. For example, measurement values being displayed can be binary encoded and displayed according to this encoding. The individual display elements in a binary encoding are each assigned to powers of two, so that with seven display elements there can be shown a maximum of 27, i.e., 128 values. However, such an encoding comes at the expense of easy legibility, so that encoding cannot be used in application realms where a fast, precise and easy legibility needs to be assured.
What is not appreciated by the prior art is the problem of providing a display device which assures an easy, reliable and fast legibility, yet enables the displaying of an enlarged range of values.
Accordingly, there is a need solved by a display device with the features of proposed invention including an alternative actuation device relating to the same.